Israel certifies its election as the Shin Bet tells the committee foreign funding may involve "thousands"

Israel's Central Elections Committee certified the results of the October 27 Knesset election on Wednesday morning, November 4, and handed them to President Isaac Herzog, who opened coalition consultations the same afternoon. The committee said its review of three-quarters of the country's polling stations found no irregularities that compromised the vote. Less than an hour after the vote to certify, the Shin Bet security service told the same committee that suspected foreign funding of election activity "may involve thousands of people and possibly more," without naming a country, a person or any evidence. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir then called for the arrest of Arab party leaders and a freeze on certification. The attorney general answered that no one may be questioned without evidence.

The result is a certified election and an open security inquiry running side by side. The certification is final under Israeli law and starts the clock on forming a government. The inquiry, whatever it finds, cannot change the seat count, as the committee chair has said since Sunday. What it can still change is the politics: whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc keeps pressing its "stolen election" claim into the coalition talks, and whether an Eisenkot-led government that depends on Arab-led parties can be formed under that cloud. Our earlier report on Sohlberg's statement that the results would stand covers the weekend; this report covers Wednesday.

How the committee reached its decision

The committee's acting director-general, Dean Livne, set out the review before the vote. Staff examined records from 9,069 of the 12,018 regular polling stations, about 75 percent, compared with 5,100 stations reviewed after the previous election, and carried out in-depth reviews at 350 stations, Ynet reported. The committee received 2,452 complaints from parties and candidate lists concerning 1,350 stations, and 1,239 complaints from the public concerning 750 stations. About 250 public-sector lawyers worked on the review over six working days. "Every complaint received from the parties, candidate lists and the public was examined on its merits," Livne said. The committee's finding, as quoted by Euronews, was that "the review found no evidence of irregularities that compromised the integrity of the election or affected its results."

The vote came in two stages. The presidium approved the results 3–0 with two abstentions: chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg and the representatives of Yesh Atid and Blue and White voted in favor, while the Likud and Shas representatives abstained. The full committee then approved the results and the seat allocation by 15 votes in favor, 14 abstentions and 2 against. The two votes against came from Otzma Yehudit. Likud, Religious Zionism, Shas and United Torah Judaism abstained. Yesh Atid, the Democrats, Yisrael Beytenu, the Arab parties and Blue and White voted in favor, according to Ynet. Likud also abstained from approving the results in 2020, Ynet noted.

Source: Ynet, Nov. 4, 2026.

Sohlberg told the committee that the suspicions under investigation remain suspicions. "At this stage, these are only suspicions," he said, and "none of this casts doubt on the election as a whole." The lawful route for anyone who wants to challenge the outcome, he said, "is not here, but through an election appeal." A day earlier he had refused a request from Netanyahu's bloc, which holds a majority on the committee plenum, to delay publication while it discussed the vote-buying arrests. "Neither the plenum nor anyone else has the legal power to delay the publication of the official election results," he said, according to The Times of Israel, adding that the Basic Laws require publication eight days after the vote. He moved Wednesday's meeting to 9 a.m. to allow a fuller discussion.

The certified results

The committee's final figures give Likud 27 seats, Yashar 21, Together 12, the Joint List 11, the Democrats 8, Ra'am 8, Yisrael Beytenu 7, Otzma Yehudit 7, United Torah Judaism 7, Shas 6 and Religious Zionism 6, Ynet reported. Turnout was 77.9 percent, with 5,716,665 votes counted, of which 5,690,778 were valid. The threshold of 3.25 percent of valid votes was 184,947. Our report on the final count explains the bloc arithmetic: 53 seats for the parties that sat in Netanyahu's outgoing coalition, 48 for the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot, and 19 for the two Arab-led lists.

Likud

27

Yashar

21

Together

12

Joint List

11

The Democrats

8

Ra'am

8

Yisrael Beytenu

7

Otzma Yehudit

7

United Torah Judaism

7

Shas

6

Religious Zionism

6

Source: Ynet

Show the numbers

Party	Seats
Likud	27
Yashar	21
Together	12
Joint List	11
The Democrats	8
Ra'am	8
Yisrael Beytenu	7
Otzma Yehudit	7
United Torah Judaism	7
Shas	6
Religious Zionism	6

What the Shin Bet told the committee

At about 10:36 a.m., after the presidium vote, the Shin Bet presented a summary to the full committee. Intelligence gathered so far, it said, points to widespread foreign funding and influence operations that may involve "thousands of people and possibly more," with money moved into Israel from foreign countries and from actors with "concealed and even hostile interests," The Times of Israel reported. The agency said more work was needed to "connect the dots and determine the extent of the phenomenon with a high degree of certainty," Ynet reported. It did not identify the countries or the people involved, and, according to Ynet, presented no supporting evidence and declined to answer questions, including whether its director, David Zini, knew of the suspected scale when he stood beside Sohlberg on Sunday and endorsed the view that the results would stand.

That is the gap the summary leaves. It does not establish that any vote was bought, that any foreign state directed the money, or that any of it changed a result. Ynet's report made the same point. Police and law-enforcement sources told Haaretz, as relayed by The Times of Israel, that they were not familiar with claims of "huge sums" or "thousands of people." One source asked how Zini could have said on election day that the vote was safe: "If huge sums were flowing in, it should have been thwarted." Earlier in the week, the Shin Bet had described the inquiry as "focused and limited," and unnamed agency sources told Channel 12 on October 29 that nothing under investigation could affect the result, per the Times of Israel liveblog that day. Reported allegations have centered on money from Qatar and, in some accounts, Turkey; both governments have denied any role.

The Shin Bet's request to question Arab lawmakers is a separate thread. Maariv reported this week that Zini sought to interrogate Joint List lawmaker Ahmad Tibi, Ra'am chairman Mansour Abbas, Balad chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh and a fourth official. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara denied the request on Tuesday, citing parliamentary immunity and a lack of evidence. "It is not permissible to interrogate citizens or elected officials without evidence to justify such action," her office said, The Jerusalem Post reported. The Shin Bet then said its request concerned people in the lawmakers' circles, not the lawmakers themselves, and Zini reportedly told Sohlberg: "I will not move an inch from what the Attorney General instructs me to do." Our report on that request has the background.

Reactions on the right

Ben Gvir, who leads Otzma Yehudit, went further than any other party leader. He urged Zini to arrest all Arab party leaders and question them "in Shin Bet basement cells," even without the attorney general's approval, and demanded an immediate freeze on certification and on government formation. "The election was stolen here in the State of Israel," he said, according to The Times of Israel. His party's statement to the committee said: "The elections were rigged, the results are false and foreign countries interfered," Ynet reported. Otzma Yehudit was the only faction to vote against certification.

Likud's representative on the committee, Amit Halevi, resigned his seat rather than take part. "The Elections Committee has no authority to discuss or approve the results" until the suspicions of foreign interference are dispelled, he said, per Ynet. Likud's statement accused the attorney general of blocking the interrogations and of trying to "whitewash" the inquiry, The Times of Israel reported. The party abstained rather than vote against. Shas's representative, Erez Malul, defended the Shin Bet chief against critics: "Attacking the head of the Shin Bet at a time like this harms national security."

There is a difference within the bloc. Otzma Yehudit says the results are false and should not be certified. Likud says a "black cloud" hangs over them until the inquiry ends, as it said on Sunday, but has not voted against certification and has pursued a court petition seeking repeat votes at specific polling stations rather than annulment of the election. Religious Zionism and Shas, which abstained, told Herzog on Tuesday that they would recommend Netanyahu to form the government, The Jerusalem Post reported, which implies they accept that the certified Knesset is the one that will vote on it. Our report on the bloc's recommendations notes that United Torah Judaism has not yet committed.

Reactions in the opposition and among Arab parties

Opposition leader Yair Lapid said on Wednesday morning that Netanyahu cannot remain prime minister and that a unity government under him is no longer possible, citing Zini's conduct and the results of the U.S. midterm elections, per The Times of Israel liveblog. Yesh Atid's committee representative, Vladimir Beliak, said: "We have a political Shin Bet chief here who is harming democracy," Ynet reported. Attorney General Baharav-Miara issued what Ynet called an unusually sharp statement against Zini, accusing him in effect of undermining the rule of law by seeking to question politicians without evidence.

The Arab-led parties have rejected the allegations since they surfaced. "There will be nothing [found], because there is nothing," Abbas wrote on X on October 29, The Times of Israel reported. Abu Shehadeh said then: "You lost. Go home." On Wednesday, Ra'am lawmaker Yoav Segalovitz said of the proposed interrogations: "There is no evidentiary basis for doing so," and the legal center Adalah accused Zini of seeking to "cast doubt on the election results," per The Jerusalem Post. A separate police case over cash found at the homes of Ra'am activists arrested on election day is still open; as we reported earlier, no link between it and the Shin Bet inquiry has been established, and the suspects deny wrongdoing.

The coalition clock starts

Herzog received the certified results from Sohlberg before noon and began meeting faction representatives in ascending order of size, starting with Religious Zionism, Shas and Yisrael Beytenu, with the rest to follow on Thursday, The Jerusalem Post reported. Religious Zionism and Shas back Netanyahu. Yisrael Beytenu's Avigdor Liberman, Together's Naftali Bennett and the Democrats' Yair Golan have said they will recommend Eisenkot. If the Joint List and Ra'am also recommend him, Eisenkot would have 67 recommendations to Netanyahu's 46, by Ynet's count before the talks. Our report on the opposition's recommendations explains why the Arab parties' choice is the hinge. Herzog must assign the task within seven days of publication, so by November 11. The first candidate gets 28 days, extendable by 14. Our guide to the timetable sets out each stage.

1. 2026-10-27Knesset election; three Ra'am activists arrested with cash on election day
2. 2026-10-29Sohlberg asks the Shin Bet to investigate suspected foreign funding; committee confirms final count
3. 2026-11-01Sohlberg, Zini and the attorney general say together that the results will stand
4. 2026-11-03Sohlberg rejects a request to delay publication and moves the meeting to 9 a.m.
5. 2026-11-04Committee certifies results; Shin Bet gives its "thousands" summary; Herzog begins consultations

Source: Ynet, The Times of Israel

The certification lands as Netanyahu's relationship with Washington is also in flux. President Trump said this week that U.S. aid to Israel of about $4 billion a year will end, a change he attributed to Netanyahu, as our report on the aid announcement explains. Lapid's reference to the U.S. midterms, in which Democrats won both chambers of Congress, was a bet that Netanyahu's standing abroad has weakened too.

What the evidence does and does not show

Three things are established. The committee reviewed a larger share of polling stations than after any recent election and found no irregularity that changed a result. The results are certified and in the president's hands. The Shin Bet believes foreign money reached election-related activity on a scale it cannot yet measure, and it has said so to the committee in general terms.

Three things are not established. No evidence has been made public that any vote was bought or that any foreign state directed funding. No named person has been charged in the Shin Bet inquiry. And no one has shown that any of this altered the allocation of a single seat. Likud's own argument on Sunday was that 4,612 votes separated Ra'am from losing one seat to the right; even if that seat moved, Netanyahu's bloc would reach 54, not 61.

The argument that the election should not be certified because an inquiry is open rests on the premise that the inquiry might change the result. Sohlberg's answer is that Israeli law provides an appeal route for that, and that the committee has no power to withhold results. The argument that the Shin Bet chief is acting politically rests on timing and on the absence of evidence in his summary; it does not show that the suspicions are baseless, only that they are unproven. Both readings are open until the inquiry reports.

Public opinion and online reaction

We found no published representative poll of Israelis on whether the election was fairly conducted or on the Shin Bet inquiry, so we make no claim about what the public thinks. Our usual practice is to sample X and Reddit threads directly; during this run neither platform was reachable from our research desk, so the posts cited above, including Abbas's on October 29, are reported as quoted by The Times of Israel rather than verified against the original permalinks. Readers should treat them as statements by political actors, not as a gauge of sentiment.

What remains unknown

When the Shin Bet will report, and to whom. Whether the joint team of the Shin Bet, police and State Attorney's Office that Sohlberg announced on Sunday has opened any criminal case. Whether Likud's petition for repeat votes at specific stations has been filed, and how a court will treat it. Whether the Joint List and Ra'am will recommend Eisenkot on Thursday, and on what terms. And whether the "thousands" figure, once examined, describes a vote-buying operation or something far more diffuse, such as foreign-funded turnout campaigns that may or may not have broken Israeli law.

Differing perspectives

Should Israel's election results have been certified while the Shin Bet's foreign-funding inquiry remains open?

Each position is summarized as its supporters make it, with equal weight and in alphabetical order. A summary is not an endorsement; the evidence for each is weighed in the story above.

• Certify on the legal timetable; challenges go to an election appeal

  Who holds it: Justice Noam Sohlberg, chair of the Central Elections Committee, and the committee's professional staff

  Sohlberg argues that the Basic Laws require publication of the results eight days after the vote and that neither the committee plenum nor anyone else has the legal power to delay them. The review covered about 75 percent of polling stations and found no irregularity that affected a result. Suspicions remain suspicions until proven, he says, and the proper route for anyone with evidence is an election appeal, not a vote to withhold certification.

  In their words: The Times of Israel liveblog, Nov. 3–4, 2026, quoting Sohlberg ↗

• Freeze certification and question Arab party leaders now

  Who holds it: National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and the Otzma Yehudit party, the only faction to vote against certification

  Ben Gvir argues that the Shin Bet's own summary describes foreign funding on a scale of thousands of people, which in his view means the election was stolen and the results are false. He says the agency should arrest and question the leaders of the Arab parties immediately, even without the attorney general's approval, and that certification and government formation should be frozen until the inquiry is complete. His party says foreign countries interfered and the results should not stand.

  In their words: The Times of Israel liveblog entry, Nov. 4, 2026, quoting Ben Gvir ↗

• No questioning of elected officials without evidence

  Who holds it: Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and her office; Yesh Atid's committee representative

  The attorney general argues that Israel is a state governed by the rule of law and that it is not permissible to interrogate citizens or elected officials without evidence that justifies it. She denied the Shin Bet's request to question four Arab lawmakers, citing parliamentary immunity and the absence of evidence, and says the agency's push to do so undermines the rule of law. On this view the certification was correct and the inquiry must proceed on evidence, not on political pressure.

  In their words: The Jerusalem Post, Nov. 4, 2026, quoting the Attorney General's office ↗

• The allegations are a campaign against Arab voters; the results stand

  Who holds it: Ra'am, the Joint List and Balad, and the legal center Adalah

  The Arab-led parties argue that the foreign-funding claims are an attempt by the losing side to delegitimize a record Arab turnout and the 19 seats it produced. Mansour Abbas says there will be nothing found because there is nothing; Balad's Sami Abu Shehadeh calls the campaign a racist blood libel; Ra'am's Yoav Segalovitz says there is no evidentiary basis for questioning anyone. They say the arrests of their activists on election day were meant to suppress Arab voting and that the certified results must be respected.

  In their words: The Times of Israel, Oct. 29, 2026, quoting Abbas, Abu Shehadeh and the Joint List ↗

• The committee lacks authority to approve results under a cloud

  Who holds it: Likud, whose committee representative Amit Halevi resigned rather than take part; the party abstained on certification

  Likud argues that it is contradictory for the committee chair to call the suspicions serious while deciding in advance that they cannot affect the outcome. Halevi says the committee has no authority to discuss or approve the results until the suspicions of foreign interference are dispelled. The party accuses the attorney general of blocking the interrogations the Shin Bet sought and says a black cloud hangs over the results until the inquiry ends. Likud abstained rather than vote against, and is pursuing a court petition for repeat votes at specific stations.

  In their words: Ynet, Nov. 4, 2026, quoting Halevi and Likud ↗